Thursday, June 28, 2018

The First Principle Project has now been in
existence five years, starting after the 2013 General Assembly. Since that time
we have reached with our programs and leadership every single UU congregation.
Our goal of supporting life on this planet through encouraging conversations
about how we respond to a multispecies existence has been partially achieved.
There is still much work to be done.

As the facilitator of this project I am asking you
what you need from this network of congregations and from the social capital
that has been produced. I am unsure of
next steps, as it is up to you and your guidance about what we all do together.

If you are willing, please respond to this email and
discuss with one another what we might do.

In themeantime,
here are some updates that might inform the discussion:

1. The UUA Board will not be forming a Study
Commission on how we might change our principles to reflect the issues that the
First Principle Project (FPP) raised, which also includes the 8th Principle
Project which we supported during the 2017 General Assembly. Instead the Board
will be guiding a conversation with Unitarian Universalists over the next year
to see how "who we are" and "where we want to go" might be
better reflected in our principles. Your congregation engaging in this process
will continue the goals of the FPP.

2. Our efforts to support a Congregational Study
Action Issue (CSAI) on multispecies aspects resulted in two congregations adapting
the original template to one single one that was more oriented towards
intersectionality with a multispecies emphasis. One congregation went forward
with this CSAI to General Assembly. The delegates voted instead for another
CSAI that concerned white supremacy and intersectionality. Your congregation
engaging in this CSAI will continue the goals of the FPP.

3. The UU Animal Ministry continues its good work
and would be a place to engage with others your continued multispecies
ministries. Please visit them at www.uuam.org to see their resources and how
you might get involved.

It may be that the FPP will not continue as it has
been. If that is the case, I thank you for the honor and privilege of serving.

Tuesday, March 13, 2018

First delivered as a sermon on Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday weekend 2018 at the Community Unitarian Universalist Community at White Plains, NY

Rev. Dr. LoraKim Joyner

I was born into a racist culture and family – specifically in Atlanta, Georgia. We moved to Northern Virginia in 1968, only a few months before Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. My parents enrolled me in Louise Archer Elementary School an all African American school, founded in a black neighborhood mostly fenced off from white suburbs. I started only a few months after the school had been desegregated and I was in the first batch of white children to attend.

I found myself making friends quickly Thea, who I invited home so that we could practice a school play. She lived nearby, but on that the other side of that fence, which we climbed to get to my house. My mother came home from work and saw us playing in the living room and told me to get Thea to leave. As soon as she left my mother slapped my face and said, "Don’t you ever bring another _______ into this house again."

My family has a lot of work to do and so do I to combat that training of seeing more worth in some than others, undoing the fear that I would be loved less if I thought any differently. Though my example is more extreme than many, none of us escape this enculturation.

My family is not just my biologic nuclear family, but it is my cultural family anchored here in the USA. I didn't know how that family had trained me into a dominating colonizing culture until I started to work in Latin America. I consulted with the Puerto Rican Parrot Recovery project. Once a million of these lived on the island precolonization, but by 1973, only 14 remained

The indigenous people were long gone due to European colonization, and the parrot nearly went extinct due to the large deforestation of the island after the USA invasion and colonization in 1898. The USA collapsed the Puerto Rican economy and put sugar cane all over the island. Due to extreme efforts the parrot numbers somewhat rebounded. But the recent hurricanes this late summer, Irma and Maria, devastated the people and the parrots there, vulnerable due to past and ongoing extraction economies, and instutionalized racist and speciesist business, taxation, and aid practices.

My human, USA family has a lot of work to do, and so do I because I benefited and continue to do so at the cost of the many. None of us escapes the work to stop this extraction and domination economy that marginalizes and colonizes.

I responded to the work my human family and I had to do by taking up the call to Unitarian Universalist (UU) Ministry. My sense of family grew to incorporate Unitarian Universalism. While preparing for the ministry I learned the long, hard, and painful history of how Unitarian Universalists had made many mistakes in how people of color were treated in our movement, as evidenced by the book, "Black Pioneers in a White Denomination," multiple painful episodes since, and ongoing ones as evidences in this book.

My UU family has a lot of work to do. I know this because I am at the forefront of a UU movement to understand how what harms animals, also harms humans. We ask how extending our sense of the inherent worth and dignity to individuals of all species helps humans too. This work brings up the pain and loss of how deficient UUs have been with people, as well as other species. This is uncomfortable, painful, and stressful, and it seems that none of us can say or do the right thing. Sound like fun? It is hard, but there is a tang of freedom in the air. Even if you aren't UU, join us as various possible denominational change, votes, and study groups are coming in the future. My family is doing the work, and we need to do more, for we have not won freedom yet

Our work for freedom means addressing intersectionality. Intersectionality means that oppression is experienced differently based on our various identities. Women experience oppression differently than men, and blacks different from whites, and hence black women experience oppression from being both black and female. The corollary is also true - we benefit from a system that oppressed others based on our identities and locations of privilege. I am white human North American from the lower middle class -this gives me privileges that others have, and oppressions that others don’t have.

Intersectionality also means that there are core oppressions that intersect all identities. Some call this core oppression patriarchy, which isn't really about men, so relax guys. It is a culture based on seeing different others as less than, which is tied to dominance, power over, white supremacy, and inequality, all of which catch each of us in a sticky web of harm and benefit.

What does the work of intersectionality look like?

First off, it is not shame or blame or pointing fingers at who oppresses more or is oppressed more. We all are enculturated to be oppressors and oppressed. We are not to blame, but we are responsible. All of us.

The world has lived with 500 years of modernity and colonization to hide the reality that we are inextricably tied to one another and all life in beauty, tragedy, and death. "Wishing for life at any price continuously calls forth death - the death of other people, other beings, the extinguishing of languages, ideas cultures, and worst of all, possibilities and degrees of freedom" (Andrea Weber). We all are trapped. Our work for freedom is undoing the core oppression for our co-liberation. For this liberation we must learn to "live without fear and to die courageously."

This is a death of individualism so that all are centered. In the circle of life, the suffering of another is also ours. In the countries I work in Latin America there is constant evidence of the devastation of colonialism and USA foreign policy. The people I work with, descendants of disappeared indigenous cultures and slaves, and the dearth of wildlife, do not let me forget it. But I am so alive there for it takes everything I’ve got to show up and be vulnerable. What began as a wound ends in a caressing touch. I’m undone and then made whole.

The work for freedom means we center the marginalized voices. Our individualism dies every time we allow another to speak. And we are born again.

We must center what we marginalize within ourselves. Miki Kashton, a leader in Nonviolent Communication, told me a few weeks ago to not believe a thing you grew up thinking or doing, for it was all based on core oppressions. We need to lay aside the armor that doesn't protect us, but fetters us. Let us lay that burden down.

We must center ourselves in history, ecology, and biology. We must look at past societal practices and how we have been harmed and benefited. Thanks goodness for our neuroplastic brains which are ready to believe that power over is the only way to meet our needs, but can also learn that cooperation and co-liberation brings flourishing to many lives. We must accept that we will die and no level of control will stop that. We must embrace reality - to accept all that is now and also, paradoxically, do everything in our power to change it. We are so powerful in freedoms return embrace.

(photo by Dagmar Ollman)

We need resilience because we tread a fragile path of feeling shame, separation, and oppression, but there is joy lurking in that journey. We can take a beginning step by sharing our social location when we meet with others, without shame or blame, being honest of our privilege and oppression. We confess. Here is an example.

My name is LoraKim Joyner. I identify as a white human heterosexual female of European descent raised in the southern USA in the lower middle class, 2 generations from Alabama sharecroppers, currently living outside of NY City. My childhood was full of experiences and hard lessons taught from family, friends, the surrounding society, and a dominant oppressive culture that acculturated within me the trappings of privilege, white domination, human domination, as well as victimhood. I am also a mother and grandmother of people who identify as of European/indigenous descent from Honduras. My work in the world is as conservationist throughout Latin America, wildlife veterinarian, Unitarian Universalist minister, and a Compassionate Communication trainer and practitioner.

All of this history and categories of oppression and oppressor cannot be unwoven from my relationships. They form me but they do not bind me. We can help each other loose these chains of bondage by sharing how this message intersects with your identities, experiences, and locations of oppression and privilege.

I am held rapt by the power and hope of freedom won together, for none are free until all are free. My father in his older years nearly died of heart failure, but miraculously a heart match was found for him quickly. He was a small man so the heart of an African descent girl who had died in a car accident became his. My parents were grateful, and softened.

Let us not let death, or the fear of death, keep us from giving our hearts to one another.

They who bind to themselves a joy

Do the winged life destroy

But they who kiss the joy as it flies

Live in eternity's sunrise

(adapted from William Blake)

What You Can Do

1. Join our new Freedom Project. This is an international campaign aimed at stopping the wildlife trade - most notably in parrots but also in other wildlife. We will use multimedia to show the vision of all beings being free, such as the picture below of a rescued yellow-naped parrot chick that almost ended up as a pet but was released to fly free. Materials and resources will be available that highlight our slogans, "No Cage is Big Enough," "None are Free until All Are Free." and "Tu Casa No Es Mi Casa."

Monday, June 19, 2017

One of our First Principle congregations, along with help from the congregations in Athens, PA and New Orleans, LA, and the Commission of Social Witness, submitted a Study Action Item to be brought to the General Assembly in June 2018. Please vote yes for it. For a current copy, go here. It is titled, "Dismantling Intersectional Justice."The UUA Board at General Assembly June 2017 announced that it will appoint a Study Commission to look at possible changes to our Principles and Purposes.

We are organizing further events and projects. To find out more, read updates on the resource page.

The resources on this website were tuned for General Assembly. We will be updating them once we understand how the Study Commission will function. To get regular updates, visit our facebook page.

Sunday, June 18, 2017

By Nikki J HuntThe First Principle
Project is more than a bylaw change. It is a deepening of faith and
relationships through conversations with each other when we ask heart and mind
challenging questions:

What does it mean to be
human in a multispecies world? And what is our compassionate response to that
understanding? How can we live more deeply connected to all of life? How can we
love both human nature and all of nature? Exploring these and other questions
together will help us grow stronger, flourishing communities.

The FPP challenges us to ask to go beyond this, to look
deeper. There is so much suffering in the world. How do we fix this? It is easy to fall into ranking suffering
and say we need to fix this oppression first before this other oppression. This
way of thinking is both symptomatic and prescriptive of a worldview rooted in
domination. When we rank suffering as part of our strategy of change, we will
create solutions that have within them the seeds of domination.

Instead of using the tools of domination, the
FPP asks us to use the tools of love--cooperation, compassion, individual and
collective responsibility, and justice. We can help each other widen our caring
and accountability so we can see, more and more, how everyone and everything is
interconnected. When we each do the work of undoing oppression from this place
of our interconnections, then we find solutions to suffering that do not rest
upon or perpetuate the suffering of others. Instead we find solutions that heal
deeply and transformatively. We find solutions that create flourishing for
everyone and everything.

This is why the FPP’s goal is to foster, grow
and deepen conversation around the idea of shifting from “every person” to “every
being.” There are no simple answers and no simple fixes, and such conversations
can be hard and even painful. Yet we are called to rise to engage these
questions together, for this is how we create Beloved Community.

We hope you will vote yes at General Assembly
to continue the conversation.

The time
has now come upon us after many years of hard work. This coming General
Assembly in New Orleans, June 2017, we will vote to appoint a study commission considering how
we might change the First Principle (and/or other principles) to reflect the
inherent worthy and dignity of every being.

It has
been a beautiful process, full of joy and of pain, both of which are needed for
change. During this time I have seen in
you a growing depth, increasing connection to life and to others, startling and unexpected awe and wonder about
what life might hold for us, and a greater hope for justice of all kinds in
this time of peril. I have recorded a few comments from others:

"Reflecting
on the First Priniciple Project (FPP) has changed my life. I feel so much

more
compassion for myself and others."

“The FPP has surprised
me about the depths of interconnection and beauty that is in life.

It
has grown my faith in UUA and in my life."

“Our
UUA needs this gift, for ourselves and others as we nurture each other, the
earth

and
other species. If we can pass this it will help us towards improving our anti-racism work,

understanding
intersectionality, and promoting justice.”

Let me ask
you:

Will you take the risk to hold difficult conversations and feel uncomfortable, slowing
down and taking the time to reap rich rewards for the future?

Will you be
willing to let go of a perceived sense of separation from life, that causes the malaise of disconnection and loneliness?

Will you heal yourself so that you can heal an aching and disconnected world?

Will you dare to rise to see all life as interconnected in beauty, worth, and dignity,
growing compassion for humans, other species, and yourself?

Here is a
video asking if we dare to rise:

I hope that
the answer to these questions about growing love, compassion, and justice is
yes, for the world needs us as never
before. We can lead the way to help
others surmount the challenges before us, but only if we say yes to life, and
open ourselves to the risk of change and the responsibility that
interconnecting beauty and worth places upon us.

Loving every part of the world and embracing reality is a great
responsibility. I work in the most
dangerous country in the world for environmentalists, Honduras. There I partner
with the indigenous people in conservation and humanitarian projects that
promote environmental justice. This
is my calling as a Unitarian Universalist minister and wildlife veterinarian -
nurturing nature, ours, yours, theirs, the earth's. I approach this deeply meaningful work by
knowing that the health of each individual is inextricably interrelated - we
are one earth, and one health.

I heard this same sentiment expressed by Tomás, an indigenous leader of the
Miskito people in Honduras. I am there to witness and stand in solidarity with
the villages that wish to resist the overwhelming forces that seek to extract
their trees, steal their wild parrots for the illegal wildlife trade, take
their land, and impose violence, corruption, and the drug trade as a way of
life.

Tomás stood up to these forces that were destroying
his ancestral lands. For his efforts, he
made enemies who ambushed him one day, and he was shot 4 times. He nearly died. His whole village had to flee
because they were likewise threatened with their lives. Tomas's parent's house was burned to the ground. Yet, four months later
he returned to the ghost-like village to work with me and others on parrot
conservation. We had to hire a squad of
soldiers from the Honduran military to accompany us and keep Tomas and others safe. I asked him why he was willing to risk his
life. He replied, "Doctora, everything is at risk so I am willing to risk
everything. If the parrots don't make it, neither do my people."

I
agree that we must take care of the least of these, the most oppressed, and
ourselves as well. To do so we need to investigate the root causes that lead to domination, colonization, and
injustice. To do so I feel we need
conversation, reflection, and study, which may eventually lead to a change in
our principles.

I
beseech you to vote yes at the General Assembly and encourage other delegates to do so as well.. Let us together bring our principles to life.

In the
last 3. 5years there has been much produced documenting the views of Unitarian Universalists
and how we struggle and benefit from engaging in these issues. Please see the
ample materials at our main website:
www.firstprincipleproject.org and at our blog: www.ofeverybeing.blogspot.com

Tuesday, April 25, 2017

I gave this sermon at
the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Chico on April 23, 2017. Before I
spoke, we showed this video: “How Wolves Change Rivers”

For the past several years, a group
of UUs has been working to officially change our first principle from “the
inherent worth and dignity of every person” to “the inherent worth and dignity
of every being.” This group formed the First Principle Project and are working
their way through the UUA steps for amending our bylaws. This June at General
Assembly, delegates will vote on whether or not to send this proposal to a 1-2
year study commission.

What does it mean to be human in a
multi-species world? In many ways, this question is at the epicenter of the
First Principle Project. Changing our first principle from “every person” to
“every being” is much more than a shift of one word. This simple change invites
us into a deeper, more complex conversation about what it means to be human,
how we understand the divine, and why we are here.

When I was five, my mother taught
me how to catch butterflies. There were patches clover in the stretch of green
between the apartment buildings where we lived. She said I had to be able to be
very still on the outside and on the inside too. I remember the first time I
caught a butterfly. I was thrilled, feeling the soft flutter of wings on my
palms. I could open my fingers a crack and peek inside. Sitting there in the
sun, smiling at my accomplishment, the soft fluttery touches slowly drew me in
until I was able to really feel the little life between my hands.

And I realized how frightened it
must be! My mother had warned me not to touch its wings or it might not be able
to fly, and not to hold it too long. But once I connected with the butterfly as
a being and not just an entertainment, I could no longer ignore its fear. Then
I understood why I had to let it go. Over the next few weeks I caught a few
more, but eventually the joy I felt in this new skill paled in comparison to
the echo of pain and fear I felt in the desperate flutter of butterfly wings.

I learned some important lessons
about being human that day, beyond realizing that I could feel a connection
with insects as well as with my mother and other humans. I learned what it felt
like to hold the power of life or death in my hands. And I learned that power
comes with responsibility.

We live in a tumultuous time. Many
of us are challenging the system of domination with its reliance on power-over.
Many of us are working to shift away from a world rooted in oppression to a
world where flourishing is nurtured for all—for individual humans, for human
communities, and for the earth and all the many beings that live here with us. Much
of the chaos and crises that explode across the daily headlines are directly
connected to this struggle to birth something new.

Because this something new would
benefit everyone, we have a hard time understanding why anyone would stand
against this ideal. Why would anyone be against flourishing for everyone?

I offer that the difference goes
back to what we believe about human nature. Are we humans basically good or are
we basically bad? How we answer this question leads to very different societys.

If we believe that humans are
basically bad, then things like obedience-based education, and
punishment-rooted criminal justice make sense. In this world view, human nature
needs to be firmly and clearly controlled, and it is a lack of appropriate and adequate
control that results in poverty, drug use, crime, homelessness, and all of the
other problems of our modern world.

If we believe humans are basically
good, then obedience and punishment smothers and harms the divine spark born in
each of us.

My understanding of human nature basically
arises out of a mix of what is called process theology, and science. Process
theology says that we are all a part of divinity and, as such, are co-creators
with God. This means that we all play a part in creating this world every day. Process
theologian Catherine Keller says, “In the image of the creator we are invited
to a creative responsibility—an ability to respond in appreciative relation to
the others, human and nonhuman. To respond not just dutifully but
resourcefully, in the flow of creativity and in the beauty of grace.”

Unitarian Universalists also value
science as one of the sources that informs our understanding humanity. So what
does science say about human nature? From what I have read, on the whole, we
humans are born with the potential for both good and evil. The relationships we
develop and the environment we collectively create plays a large role in
whether we act for the good of others or whether we act in ways that harm and
oppress others.

In Trauma & Evil: Healing the Wounded Soul minister and
psychologist Jeffery Means says, “While the embryonic self is innate and ordinarily
contains the capacity to organize experience, it requires a matrix of
relationships within which to develop and mature to its potential. This means
that the structuralization of the human mind grows out of human relationships…
Relationships and connection with others is more basic and necessary for our
survival and development than is pleasure”.

I learned one beautiful way of
summing this up from Rev. Ben McBride at a PICO training last year. He shared
with us a part of traditional Zulu culture. In greeting each other one would
say “I see you.” And the traditional response is “Because you see me, I exist.”
This understanding of our interdependence is reflected in our seventh UU
principle: “Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are
a part.”

Which brings me back to that
butterfly and our first principle. I am called to use the power that I have
responsibly. We are all called to use our power responsibly. Our UU principles
exist as a guide for how we can do this. It is subtle, but the inherent worth
and dignity of every person elevates humanity above other
forms of life.

I see in this an unconscious
reflection of the power-over domination model that permeates our society. This
is the model that gives humans dominion over the world, and we have seen how
well this dominion as fared—it has given us poisoned water in Flint Michigan,
the Tar Sands wastelands in Canada, massive species extinction, and more. This
model is also the model that supports some humans having power-over other
humans which we see in racism, sexism, classism, homophobia. It is a model
rooted in fear and obsessed with control.

Speaker and
writer Winona La Duke says, “One of our people in the Native community said the
difference between white people and Indians is that Indian people know they are
oppressed but don’t feel powerless. White people don’t feel oppressed, but feel
powerless. Deconstruct that disempowerment. Part of the mythology that they’ve
been teaching you is that you have no power. Power is not brute force and
money; power is in your spirit. Power is in your soul. It is what your
ancestors, your old people gave you. Power is in the earth; it is in your
relationship to the earth.”

What would our world look like if
we stopped believing we are powerless? What might we create if we used
power-with to grow a world where everyone’s divine spark was supported and
nurtured? What would our world look like if we saw nature as our partner
instead of our competitor?

First Principle Project Director
Rev. LoraKim Joyner says, “This work of living out our principles is never
easy, for our principles are not an acceptance of the reality under which we
live with imperfect justice and compassion, but a vision for which we ache and
long.”

When we open up and let go of
trying to control the world—that is where co-creation begins. Words matter.
Changing our first principle from “every person” to “every being” would open us
up to a sharing of power—with each other, with the earth and with the divine.
What will you create today?

Friday, February 17, 2017

The following poem comes from me asking Christopher Sims how he experienced the First Principle Project and possible bylaw change to the First Principle (inherent worth and dignity of every being). We added discussion questions below for your journaling or small group discussion.

In
the inner city, the concrete jungle,
we are animals inside a cage surrounded
by hate and rage. We are engaged in
activities that call for peace, unity, civility.

The
concrete jungle adjusts to
whoever is in office. I many ways,
it is just us. No real justice.

As
a person of color in the concrete jungle
I am concerned about my sisters, my brothers.

My
hermanas and my hombres just the same,
because the concrete jungle has us singing
a collective blues, feeling the same pain.

As
we harmonize, there’s a jungle
with wildlife we are not connected to.
About this disconnection what should
we do?

I
say we leave our lairs to go outside
and breathe deeply fresh air. Say a
universal prayer that recognizes
our collective worth and dignity. Under
our glorious sun that’s how it should be.

As
the reflection in the mirror looks back
at me, I contemplate Black Lives Matter
and the plight to include other beings.
Possibly creating new language in complex
times when people of color find our voices
still not being heard.

The
animals, our relatives, have feelings
too. A polluted and warming planet they share
with us. Imagine what they’re thinking
as we lose Gaia’s trust.

How
do we take care of the oppressed
and protect the animals in their habitats?

The climate is changing fast so we need
to organize, react. We need to create
policies and solutions that benefit people
and our fellow beings.

How
about conversations that leads

to
Unitarian Universalist legislation
that honors every being without creating
a segregation of life? I think we have it in
us if we crafted it right.

1. Where do you
feel in your life that you are caged and need liberation? What does liberation
look like for you? How do you get there?

2. Where do you
experience that others are caged and need liberation? What does liberation look
like for others? How do they get there?

3. Where do you
experience that many different kinds of people and animals are caged and need
liberation? What are the oppressive forces that keep our society and biotic
communities imprisoned? What does
liberation look like for all of us together?
How do we all get there?

4. Where do you
feel disconnected from others, nature, and other beings? How can your
congregation help you, and the many others with the profound sense of
disconnection experienced by so many in modern life?

5. How might
considering that all beings have inherent worth and dignity nurture you and
help you connect to others, the earth, and life?

6. How do you
live with tension that others are like you, and are not like you? How might
erasing the line between those with worth and dignity, and those without (in
human perception) help you live and care for others who are different from you?
In other words, how might a First Principle Practice, as it is now, or when it
is changed, help us build communities of justice and flourishing?

Search This Blog

Why This Blog?

This is a forum open to all for discussing the nature of life on earth. Specifically we are asking if species besides humans have worth and dignity. Aimed to be an open forum, we will invite authors to publish essays on a wide range of topics relating to the question, "Does every being have worth and dignity?" We also encourage comments and further discussion following each article. All viewpoints are welcome as long as they are written in a compassionate and respectful tone, and follow the spirit of the Unitarian Universalist Principles. This blog was inspired by the First Principle Project, and though originated by the Unitarian Universalist Animal Ministry, seeks to involve the wider community into two of its goals:

1. The Conversation: Invite as many as possible into a conversation about the religious, spiritual, and ethical aspects of living in a multispecies world. One question we ask: How do we understand reality and what is our response to this?

2. Changing Ourselves: Guide people as they seek to improve their ability to participant in and sustain these discussions, reflect more deeply and broadly about what it means to be compassionate in a multispecies world, and in so doing, augment their faith development, deepen their spiritual lives, and empower their compassionate behavior at the individual and collective level.